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Poldark Series Review

I’m sorry for my lengthy absence, but everybody needs a break sometimes. In celebration of my return to blogging I want to talk about one of my favourite shows of the past month: Poldark! Spoilers included!

When I first started watching the show, I was worried it would bore me a little. I mean I’m totally into period/costume dramas, but I was not familiar with the previous adaptations of the Poldark novels and had no idea about how much drama I was going to witness. Here a little synopsis so that you don’t go into this as blind as I did:

Ross Poldark was believed to have fallen in war, yet he returns to his home to find the love of his former life, Elisabeth, betrothed to his cousin Francis and his late father’s estate completely abandoned. Against all odds he opens a thriving mine, finds new love and is just generally heroic in his actions.

Here are the things I loved most about the show:

Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark was brilliant!!! He really has the whole moody-hard-working-understanding-firm-thoughtful-silent-yet-strong-type-thing down. People are even handling him as the new Mr Darcy and there are parallels that can be drawn, besides the obvious “coming out of the water”-scene we all loved so much.

Ross is not always right and sometimes he hurts people he loves just because he thinks that whatever they did wasn’t the proper way to go about things. But the morals of this show are sometimes really amiss. How can someone be more mad about a woman sending letters than about his friend murdering his wife? That’s just hypocritical in my opinion!

While I do get Ross’ infatuation with strong and lady-like Elisabeth, I am even more into his relationship with Demelza. She was a true diamond in the rough and my heart bled for them and all the tragedies they had to endure. Demelza never stops trying to grow, has the kindest heart, yet still manages to keep her original charm.

I very much enjoyed how they portrayed the very superficial society of the time – the difference between the classes and how your birth may affect all your life choices. Also the tumult of the time, the poverty and the starvation wasn’t left out of the picture.

The atmosphere was very romantic, the colours at times vibrant and surreal when the sun went down. Still, it all looked very natural (and I know that seems contradicting…).

Our heroes have had to endure a lot throughout the 8-episode-arc and so much happened even if it’s a slow kind of storytelling during the episodes themselves sometimes. I never thought they’d be able to put so much in a mini-series, but I was utterly devastated about the cliffhanger-ending. I wasn’t aware that there would be another Season, but I am so looking forward to it now!

What’s your take on the show? Did Poldark win over your heart as well?

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4 thoughts on “Poldark Series Review”

Glad you’ve enjoyed it. Just a thought re. your second point about Ross. You’re right that he’s not always right, but with regard to his anger with Demelza, it wasn’t about her sending the letters as such – he was so angry with her because of her *deceit*, because she lied to him. He felt betrayed, which had caused Francis to commit a bigger betrayal. And the show didn’t actually show Mark “murdering” his wife; it showed it as accidental death. Everyone’s attitudes towards that need to be seen in the context of what they could expect at the time – an unfair trial and for Mark to be hanged for a crime he didn’t actually commit.

Of course there’s a certain “I’m right and you do as I say!” about all the men’s attitudes in the series towards their wives/women of their families. That was the attitude of the time, and it would be unrealistic to show anything else. Ross is actually very forward thinking in the way that he talks to Demelza about most of his business dealings and keeps little from her. Mostly they are as much partners as husband and wife could be at that time.

There are certainly problematic attitudes displayed by the male characters in the show, but it wouldn’t be realistic to show them thinking otherwise.

I very much agree that it was typical of the time to not include women in the men’s business. You are absolutely right in saying that they shouldn’t have portrayed it any differently. Yet, I cannot fully agree about Ross’ anger towards Demelza and Mark. I get that he didn’t kill his wife on purpose, but Ross just accepted that fact and gladly helped him cover it up. Mark killed someone no matter what and should get some sort of punishment. And Demelza had no idea about the repercussions of her actions. She just wanted to help Verity, which he himself did before. He was allowed to feel a little betrayed but his anger and him distancing himself from her took way too long.

Yes- *fist pumps* cos I totally agree!! I adored this show- although I also wasn’t expecting to like it. What I particularly liked was the atmosphere and how they incorporated the setting into the show. Plus I loved Ross and Demelza together so much!!